This should come as no surprise to fans who have seen DiG!, the documentary that chronicles seven years in the lives of The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. The film — and singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor's extended rants in it — made it clear that they didn't have the coziest relationship with their record label. Still, Taylor-Taylor tries to downplay the situation, at least at first.
"Well, the record label is a misnomer. It's a bunch of separate individuals and some of them are frustrating and some of them are less frustrating," he says diplomatically.
He does go on to admit that life would probably be better without them, though. "The ultimate thing to do would be to just make records and that's it and go on tour and not even ever talk to labels."
While that might be impossible, the band are doing the next best thing with their studio (and album namesake) Odditorium. Within that environment, they take care of everything from music to videos and images.
"We do everything," he says. "That's what our studio is. A quarter of a city block of fucking film production, web design, graphic design, screening room, surround mix, stereo mix, a kitchen, a library, dining room, bathroom, you know. We can stay inside this massive, massive space and it's incredible looking. And we can just stay in there and get all our work done.
"It's really hard to interface with a big, fat, bloated, desperate, irresponsible company, so you've got to really focus on finding two people, three people there that will work for you. You find the people that understand — find the least stupid people and you fucking go into business with them. The company itself is going to be frustrating. They're all a joke. Every big label is just, like, bad and fucked up."
As far as Taylor-Taylor's concerned, it's important for the band to do as much by themselves as possible, because they can't trust the record company to do something that they'll like.
"They will fuck shit up. They'll make dumb things. They'll pull stupid shit and you've got to stay on top of it," he says.
As frustrating as the business side of music can be, though, The Dandy Warhols try to keep the bigger picture in mind.
"What lasts in history is just the stuff you do," Courtney muses. "The ads go away, the radio remixes and edits go away. All that's left standing is actually the work of the artists."
Here are The Dandy Warhols' Canadian dates:
# November 15 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
# December 2 Montreal, QC Spectrum
# December 3 Toronto, ON Opera House By: ChartAttack.com Staff